Butterflies of Var, Southern France

[Padfield]

How is one to distinguish between this species and rubi?

The most reliable feature, perfectly shown in Roger's picture, is the rusty colour around the eyes. Green hairstreak has pure white there.

Guy

[David M]

How is one to distinguish between this species and rubi?

The most reliable feature, perfectly shown in Roger's picture, is the rusty colour around the eyes. Green hairstreak has pure white there.

Guy

Yes, I see what you mean now, Guy. The undersides of the antennae appear redder in avis too.

[Roger Gibbons]

Avis is relatively elusive for everyone, Reverdin! I have spent many hours looking for it in suitable habitats (and most of southern Var qualifies). Apart from the one site which I have visited in mid-April each year for six years (where I saw it only on three of those years), I have seen a single in most inaccessible territory in mid-Var and I know Matt (Rowlings) has seen it near Frejus. It is really quite puzzling why avis is so scarce, as the habitat and larval hostplant are so common.

It looks very similar to rubi but in fact, in the field, after you have seen a few avis, it becomes much easier to tell them apart in flight. There are a number of differences between the species, some of them not entirely reliable (natural variability and ageing) but David is spot-on in that the underside of the avis antennal club is orange for the whole length. This seems to me to be totally consistent. There are more details on my avis page and Matt's who has a photo of the eye area of both species for comparison.

Iolas, yes I am seeing it regularly, one male every year! According to Lafranchis, if you see two, it is a big colony. Some friends of ours have bred iolas in their garden and have several flitting around their Colutea bushes. That’s what I call a garden.

Here are a few more photos that appealed to me for various reasons.

A female Osiris Blue (Cupido osiris) egg-laying on Sainfoin (Onobrychis viciifolia). The female is nearly always seen on Sainfoin or very close to it.

A male Adonis Blue (Lysandra bellargus) roosting in overcast weather on a very delicate looking flower.

A male Baton Blue (Pseudophilotes baton), which almost captures the unique blue of the male. It is actually about the size of a Silver-studded Blue.

A Wood White (Leptidea sinapis), very probably a male in that it is taking salts. The appealing factor was the length of the proboscis.

A Cream-spot Tiger (Arctia Villica) that landed in front of me and I just avoided treading on it. It seemed to be freshly emerged.

An orchid, possibly a Toothed Orchid (Orchis tridentata). Var is superb country for orchids.

[Vince Massimo]

Hi Roger, beautiful photos as always .

In my experience I would be happy calling the Wood White a male. I think there is enough of the white colouration visible on the underside of the antennae to be sure of this.

Vince

[Nick Broomer]

Hi Roger,

Your Wood White is definitely a male, you can also tell the difference between a male and female by the size of their eyes, the males being larger as in the case of your W.W.

Nick.

[Roger Gibbons]

A few from recent travels in the Alpes (click on images to expand to full width):

A female Meadow Fritillary (Mellicta parthenoides) of the dark form

A male Mountain Fritillary (Boloria napaea) – at least I think is napaea

A male False Heath Fritillary (Melitaea diamina)

A male Grisons Fritillary (Mellicta varia)

A male Dusky Large Blue (Maculinea nausithous)

A Large Blue (Maculinea arion)

A mystery blue – anyone want to ID this (Swiss residents may find it too easy)?

[JKT]

Plebeius optilete? The only thing that doesn't quite fit is the relative straightness of forewing outer edge.

[Roger Gibbons]

correct!

[Padfield]

Swiss residents may find it too easy ...

... and Finnish residents!

I see what JKT means about the outer edge, but in almost all other respects she looks identical to this Suissesse:



Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

A few images from Var so far:

A male Provence Orange Tip (Anthocharis euphenoides) roosting in overcast conditions. LOTSW II will know the location as it is where one posed very obligingly a couple of years ago.

A very fresh Black-veined White (Aporia crataegi).

Not a common sight! A mating pair of Iolas Blue (Iolana iolas). The female is on the right as you would guess from the condition.

A freshly-emerged Scarce Swallowtail (Iphiclides podalirius).

A reasonably fresh Spanish Festoon (Zerynthia rumina) showing the beautiful deep red colouration. This species has done remarkably well in this so-far dismal season and in one location I counted 25 flying.

The weather has been very wet and unusually cold. I have seen 63 species in this locality so far, which may seem a lot but it is about ten less than usual for this time of year.

[NickMorgan]

Wow, I have just spent about half an hour reading this thread from the beginning. What an amazing collection of photographs and interesting IDs and comments. It certainly has cheered me up on a grey, cold day.

[Pete Eeles]

Wow, I have just spent about half an hour reading this thread from the beginning. What an amazing collection of photographs and interesting IDs and comments. It certainly has cheered me up on a grey, cold day.

I agree - superb photos Roger!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Padfield]

As everyone has said, these are wonderful pictures, Roger.

Mating iolas is the shot I still need to get! I've got males and females, ups and uns, nectaring, laying ... but not mating. Fantastic stuff!

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

A few photos from recent travels:


A high altitude and exquisitely-marked rather small blue, Glandon Blue (Agriades glandon).

A Red-underwing Skipper (Spialia sertorius), probably the smallest butterfly in France, usually slightly smaller than a Grizzled Skipper.

A Pearl-bordered Fritillary (Boloria euphrosyne), warming up in the early morning on a mountain path.

A female Large Wall (Lasiommata maera), very fresh, fabulously coloured with the orange offset by the perfect creamy fringes.

A male Furry Blue (Agrodiaetus dolus) with the wings just offset, enough to show the silvery blue of the upperside. It appears almost white in flight.

A freshly-emerged male Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja) which appeared rather brown in the field, to the extent that I thought it was High Brown from the colouring until I got a closer look. I don’t believe this is a trick of the camera as this is how it appeared when viewed normally.

A male Violet Copper (Lycaena helle). No words needed about this species!

A few more to follow….

[Roger Gibbons]

A few more...

A Nettle Tree butterfly (Libythea celtis) nectaring, as is often the case, on Bramble.

A male Black-eyed Blue (Glaucopsyche melanops) puddling, and then with wings open displaying the characteristic steely-blue of this species. It is superficially very similar the more common Green-underside Blue (Glaucopsyche alexis), although the latter is a rather deeper, truer, blue. These photos were taken on 1 June, whereas melanops is rarely seen in Var after the end of April, indicating just how late the season was (and still is) this year.

A female Spotted Fritillary (Melitaea didyma). I think someone recently commented on the variability of female didyma on UKB, especially how dark they can be. This one is very fresh and especially dark.

A male Ripart's Anomalous Blue (Agrodiaetus ripartii) puddling.

A male Geranium Argus (Eumedonia eumedon) roosting in overcast weather on, as always…. a geranium species.

A mating pair of Heath Fritillaries (Mellicta athalia).

[CFB]

Hello Roger,

I just love your Violet Copper (Lycaena helle). This wasn't in the Var was it?
--
Colin

[Padfield]

I agree - it's a beautiful photo of the violet copper. I'd be interested in the date, Roger. You have said in the past you didn't really believe in July helle ... This year I had spanking fresh violet coppers in mid-July and am hoping for an August individual (though the present heatwave may scupper that).

Guy

[Roger Gibbons]

Hello Colin,

No, sadly it wasn't in le Var. helle is a species of the wetlands and most of the French locations appear to be in eastern central France, in le Doubs and Jura in particular. Not that Var can complain, with 185 species recorded from there (for those maybe not familiar with French geography, Var is a département/county in the far south of France).

Guy, the date of this photo was 15 June, when most of the males were still fresh, so it is highly probable that it will still be flying into July. I have seen it at the same site in previous years on 31 May and 4 June when it was clearly toward the end of the flight period. Very pleasingly, I also saw it at two other sites where I am not sure it had previously been known. Given the huge amount of Bistort that grows everywhere, it is perhaps surprising that helle is as rare and localised as it is.

Graham Hart (whose MSc was on the ecology of helle in the Pyrénées) is undertaking a study of the state of helle in the Ariège département of the Pyrénées, following up his earlier study of some ten years ago. He presented his paper at the recent conference in Digne-les-Bains.

[Matsukaze]

Just back from a couple of weeks in Haut-Var, and plenty of butterflies on the wing. Having visited at the same time two years ago, it was interesting to compare what was flying then as against this year. Generally it looks like things were flying somewhat later this year - a fortnight or more? Still on the wing were plenty of Meadow Browns, also Silver-washed Fritillary and Purple Hairstreak, and good numbers of Large Wall Brown, of which I have only seen a single individual before. Less Common Blues and Small Heaths, and very few Small Coppers though.

Of the migrants I only saw Clouded Yellow, which was present in good numbers (and a few HBHM) - no Red Admiral or Painted Lady at all, and no Long-tailed Blues either. Has the migration come up the western side of France, I wonder?

A fair few for ID, starting with Pyrgus:

1) Smallish - Grizzled Skipper size or smaller

2) Large and noticeably brownish - no underwing shot I am afraid

3) Small/medium size - sorry for the poor underwing photo, this one did not want to be photographed...

4) No underwing shot

5) No underwing shot

[Matsukaze]

The female blues on one site puzzled me. There were plenty of male Common Blues around as well as one or two obvious Common Blue females, but there were also a large number of small, Brown Argus-sized blues about, which appeared silvery in flight and appeared to have no blue scaling. In the photos they look like Common Blue females - the cell spot certainly suggests this - but their size and relative activity in the field did not suggest Common Blue females at the time. Five separate individuals (the fifth may actually be a female Adonis, which was also present on the site).